Rainbow Lakes Campground
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $22–$44Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 17All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
This campground is at the end of the Rainbow Lakes Road and adjacent to the Indian Peaks Wilderness. There are 18 first-come, first-served Scan & Pay campsites that accommodate tents (on 14x16 foot tent pads) and small trailers. Campsite 8 is oversized and accommodates up to 15 people. Campsites 15 - 18 are walk in sites for tents. Keep reading
Facilities
Picnic tables, fire grates, vault toilets and trash services are provided. This campground does not feature drinking water, electricity, hook-ups, dump stations, or showers. All campsites with a tent pad have a bear locker.
Natural Features
Abundant hiking trails and opportunities for wildlife viewing.
Nearby Attractions
Brainard Lake Recreation Area is just a 30-minute drive from the campground.
What the agency tells you
A maximum of eight people are allowed per site. RVs, trailers or other vehicles must fit on the parking spur. Fishing is regulated by the Colorado Parks & Wildlife.
Dogs must be on a hand-held leash.
Potable water is not available at this site.
Everything else this campground posts · 5
Don't Move Firewood: Prevent the spread of tree-killing organisms by obtaining firewood at or near your destination and burning it on-site. For more information visit dontmovefirewood.org.
Fire Restrictions: Fire restrictions may be imposed at any time due to hot, dry weather conditions, at which time campfires and charcoal fires may not be allowed.
EXTRA VEHICLE FEES: One vehicle is included in your reservation. Any additional vehicles will be charged $8.00 per vehicle per night and will be collected by the camp host if you did not pay for the Extra Vehicle Add On. One vehicle consists of one camper being towed by vehicle, or any other vehicle towed behind camper. One van or one truck with camper attached counts as one vehicle. Extra vehicles must fit on the parking spur at your site.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/r02/arp for more information on the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forest.
Check-Out is at 12 P.M. Check-In is at 2 P.M.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 17
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…Facilities Picnic tables, fire grates, vault toilets and trash services are provided. This campground…”
- Dump station
- Yes
- Bear boxes
- Yes
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 14
What you actually pay
“Any additional vehicles will be charged $8.00 per vehicle per night and will be collected by the camp host if you did not pay for the Extra Vehicle Add On.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $22–$44 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 6
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
18 records
All 18 records
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 17 of the 18 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Rainbow Lakes | 01 | standard nonelectric | $22–$44 |
| Rainbow Lakes | 02 | standard nonelectric | $22–$44 |
| Rainbow Lakes | 03 | standard nonelectric | $22–$44 |
| Rainbow Lakes | 04 | standard nonelectric | $22–$44 |
| Rainbow Lakes | 05 | standard nonelectric | $22–$44 |
| Rainbow Lakes | 06 | standard nonelectric | $22–$44 |
| Rainbow Lakes | 07 | standard nonelectric | $22–$44 |
| Rainbow Lakes | 08 | standard nonelectric | $22–$44 |
| Rainbow Lakes | 09 | standard nonelectric | $22–$44 |
| Rainbow Lakes | 10 Host Site | host pad | |
| Rainbow Lakes | 11 | standard nonelectric | $22–$44 |
| Rainbow Lakes | 12 | standard nonelectric | $22–$44 |
| Rainbow Lakes | 13 | standard nonelectric | $22–$44 |
| Rainbow Lakes | 14 | standard nonelectric | $22–$44 |
| Rainbow Lakes | 15 | standard nonelectric | $22–$44 |
| Rainbow Lakes | 16 | standard nonelectric | $22–$44 |
| Rainbow Lakes | 17 | standard nonelectric | $22–$44 |
| Rainbow Lakes | 18 | standard nonelectric | $22–$44 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It names it a host pad. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.